ehcoplex 

Thanks for the report/write-up! Sounds like a great trip, and I think you really lucked out weather-wise- upstate NY can be..... variable.. I'm hoping to find the time to do it from Buffalo to Albany later this season. I knew one could camp at the locks, but the fact that they have no bathrooms is very important information (and kind of unfortunate..)! Trying to figure out if it actually is feasible to get to the start in Buffalo via Amtrak or bus (the .gov info site claims so, but it's a little less clear from Amtrak....).

RB1-luvr

thanks for sharing. I'm hoping to do this someday.

Prowler 

I’d read that the Amtrak choice was pretty limited and must be planned and committed to way before one knows what the weather is going to be. Since I’m an ole fart with a very flexible schedule, I could wait to pick a prime window, then go. Renting a one way car gave me the flexibility. Rental, gas and tolls was around $100. Probably not much more than train fair. I’ve no idea how it works via bus when I had so much luggage plus the bike. Rental car was a good fit for me.

campfire

Neat trip! Thanks for sharing.

Velo Mule

@Prowler thanks for the ride report and pictures. As a Canal buff, history buff and of course, cyclist, this trip is on my retirement things to do list. I took a small plane flight a while back from Long Island to Rochester. I was excited about this opportunity to see if I can see the canal from the plane. It turned out that not only can see the current canal, but the other alignments were clearly visible as well.

Now there is Google maps. Still clearly visible.

I love those old Cannondale bags. I have a pair of smaller ones. I wish I could find my old sewup bag and I wish they still made the gloves.

tgot 

I had a similar grade-school (or early BoyScouts?) sing-a-long memory! But from the West Coast, and a mere 45ish years ago.

In fact, the "15 miles" is from the first verse, which is almost call& response. The chorus starts "Low bridge..."

All of which I learned a few years back when I looked it up to teach to my kids. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Bridge_(song)

To bring it back on topic, that was when I was trying to get biking songs going for the family, like hiking songs, but it was just too hard to hear each other and coordinate.

Gary12000 

Thank you for the trip info and pictures, i'm an avid you tube watcher, and being from the UK we have a long history of canals, the canal paths in the UK are less than stellar however, The UK does have an extensive canal network, and i am now on my third Canal boat series,"The Mindful Narrow boat" is a lovely artistic lady with a great attitude and she goes into history of the towns some of the engineering and a good bit of Nature, there is also an Amazon show that was filmed in 2014 or so, three series by a couple of English actors who have done narrow boating for many years, Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers) and her hubby also an accomplished actor... some excellent little documentaries the show is called "Great Canal Journeys"
Good stuff.

Schreck83 

The Amtrak station at Exchange St. downtown is very close to the waterfront and the trail. From there, it’s a mix of streets and trails along the Niagara River before joining the canal path where Prowler started.

jonwvara

Thanks for a nice trip report. Glad you had a good time! I feel like I did the trail too fast last time. If and when I do it again I'm going to go slower and enjoy the history component more.

My recollection is that although there were no bathrooms at the locks, there was always a porta-john, which was enough for me. Was that still the case?

wintermute

Thanks for the travelogue! I've seen the canal many times, but only by car (or short breaks on foot) during looooonnnnnggg drives to University at Buffalo from Long Island and back.

MooneyBloke

I just have the railroad hat:

Prowler 

I know that there were “hiltons”* at a couple of locks but did not stop at most the the locks. Keep in mind that there are the locks at Lockport then none for 62 miles until you’re closer to Rochester. I also got spoiled by running water and sinks at the campgrounds. The two RV resorts I stayed at were quite nice and I had nice isolated campsites (very early in the season and week nights).

* my father used to call any such facility in the backwoods of NY State or Ontario a “Hilton”, were it an outhouse, pit or a 2x4 nailed to two trees. I’ve continued the tradition.

jonwvara

Another wonderful book about canal travel in the UK is Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Another book by the same author that is equally funny is Three Men on the Bummel, which concerns bicycle touring outing through Germany. If you're not familiar with them, they are well worth tracking down.

retlaw53 

I grew up on LI and learned the song in grade school.. Still etched in my brain. I will add this trip to the list for my Waterford.

tgot 

Borrowed from the online library!

jdawginsc 

The anchor bar. Had tons of levels of pain.